Life with Dylan

Category: flowers

  • San Diego Zoo Garden Festival “Shades of Green” – Day 1

    As much as I love the animals, the flowers at the San Diego Zoo are nothing short of amazing. I can’t help but take pictures of the flowers – even the little daises that grow along the pathways. So you can imagine how excited I get when Garden Festival comes along. In fact, I have made it our official Mother’s Day tradition!

    Today was all about the orchids. The Zoo’s Orchid House, which is open all four days of Garden Festival, is filled with the 900 different types of orchids the Zoo has. These orchids never leave the Orchid House because they are too delicate to have on the pathways. I also found out that some of the orchids were confiscated from people trying to smuggle them in to the country. For this reason, there are some very unique and non-native orchids on display.

    I could have spent all day inside the Orchid House.

    Every time I turned around there was another beautiful orchid waiting to mesmerize me.

    These orchids reminded me of the singing flowers from Alice in Wonderland.

    This year marks the 20th annual Garden Festival and the theme “Shades of Green” is aimed at bringing attention to the Zoo as a world-class botanical garden. With more than 700,000 plants and over 900 different types of orchids alone, the Zoos accredited botanical collection gets some much-deserved attention during this four-day festival highlighting all that is green.

    There is a quote at the entrance to the Zoo’s Orchid House that reads:

    “The only person ever to see some rare tropical orchid might be a bulldozer operator who is clearing the two or three acres that constitute its only habitat on earth.”

    Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the horticulture staff, I was able to see some of these rare orchids today.

    I’m looking forward to seeing more of the Zoo’s botanical beauty tomorrow.

    To see more pictures from the Orchid House visit my Flickr album.

  • Happy first day of Spring!

  • Contrasting colors in nature

  • Photographing the little details in nature

    Nature has so much to offer – so much beauty. Sometimes I am in too big of a hurry to notice the little things, but when I do I am always amazed. Last week I took some time to test out the macro setting on my camera and this is what I discovered.

    Flowers live within flowers …

    Ants live very busy lives …

    What looks prickly can still be beautiful …

    One of the things I realized during my ah-ha moment was that I want to spend more time taking pictures. More time learning about photography. Ultimately sharing my pictures with people as another way to create awareness about the world around us.

    You can see more pictures from this day by visiting my Flickr account.

  • The simple beauty of a flower petal

    Photography allows me to see the simple beauty in things that I never noticed before.

  • Creating memories at the San Diego Zoo

    Yes, as you know Dylan and I spend lots of time in San Diego. Starting to think we should just move down there – but that is another story. Over the Mother’s Day weekend we had the opportunity to attend a VIP tweet-up during the Garden Festival at the San Diego Zoo – so I figured we could make a weekend out of it and have some fun. Together, we shared some amazing experiences and created memories that will last a lifetime. Of course I documented the 20+ hours spent at the zoo with over 500 pictures … don’t worry, I’m not going to post all of them. 

    Day 1 started bright and early leaving home at 7 a.m. so we could get to the San Diego Zoo in time to see the macaw fly over and be one of the first people in the zoo. The Garden Fest tweet-up started promptly at 9:30 a.m. and Dylan didn’t want to be late. We were treated to a behind the scenes look at some creepy crawlies in the Insect House. One of Dylan’s favorite places to visit at the zoo – and one that took me some getting use to a few years ago. 
    Dylan was always front and center asking Kelli and Paige a million questions. He was in his element. Thanks for being so patient with him ladies – and fellow tweeps 🙂 
    Since it was the Garden Festival I took my time looking at all the beautiful flowers on display and at the various exhibits. Sometimes I get so caught up with the animals that I forget the San Diego Zoo is considered a world-class botanical garden. 
    After making our usual route through the zoo, we decided to make one more stop at the tigers in hopes of seeing them. When we went by earlier, the tigers were way up at the top and we like seeing them up close. Boy were we in for a treat! 
    Not only did we get to see the tigers, but we were front and center for play time in the water. After 20 minutes and taking close to 50 pictures, we peeled ourselves away from the glass so others could get a look.

  • Wordless Wednesday – Stop and see nature

    The other day Dylan and I were walking through a parking lot and I noticed some beautiful yellow hibiscus flowers. I walked over to take a picture and noticed something amazing.

    There were hundreds of ladybugs and other insects, which I do not know the name of, crawling all over the leaves and stems of the hibiscus plant. We ended up standing there for almost 15 minutes just watching. It was fascinating!

    Some people say stop and smell the roses – I say stop and see nature.